1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure is directed techniques for the selection and insertion of pins into lock cylinders and, more specifically, to a system and method for automating lock cylinder pinning for remote users.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lock cylinders are part of lock sets that consumers buy and use every day. They are pinned up (i.e., coded) at factories to ensure that each lock set requires a key to operate. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, each lock cylinder has pins of a selected length that are used to encode the particular lock cylinder. When a key of the proper shape is inserted into the cylinder, the pins align in such a manner that the cylinder can rotate within the housing. To save time and labor, lock cylinders are often pinned by sophisticated and expensive automatic pinning machines.
Typically, the lock cylinders are pinned randomly as they are produced at factories. However, sometimes the pinning is customized so that the cylinders will work as a system to control access. For example, such customized pinning may be used to allow a master key to access all offices in a building while staff keys can be used only to access specific locks within the building. Because customized pinning is a small portion of a factory's production, and requires much more sophisticated coding, customized pinning is usually performed manually. In this case, the cylinders are pinned manually resulting in a significant increase in the cost for customized lock cylinders. Accordingly, it can be appreciated that there is a significant need for techniques that allow the production of customized locks using automatic pinning machines. The present invention provides this, and other advantages, as will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.